


Make way for brotherhood

by Samsonet



Series: send new light on every face [4]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Gen, Hop & Gloria make a minor appearance but don't worry they're still sharing the brain cell, Leon didn't realize he was Bede's brother too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:21:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21705910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samsonet/pseuds/Samsonet
Summary: make way for Man!SPOILERS.
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Rose | Chairman Rose, Leon & Bede
Series: send new light on every face [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555738
Comments: 10
Kudos: 162





	1. Bede.

**Author's Note:**

> Title and summary from Edwin Markham's "Brotherhood."

It’s hard to get lost in Rose Tower. So many floors and so many rooms, yet for Leon, there’s only one direction: up.

And down, when challengers defeat him.

He never thought of himself as being a sore loser, but whenever Gloria wins, he has to hide his face. He’s not used to acting the graceful loser. Another unforeseen consequence of staking his identity on being unbeatable, it seems.

When he was Champion, he always knew where he was going, metaphorically: up. Always up. He had the region’s support, after all. He had a little brother to impress. He had Chairman Rose.

It’s hard to know where he is now, after Rose.

It’s a year after the Eternatus incident that Leon gets the message.

It’s more of a summons, really, Oleana standing before him to escort him to the meeting. Leon tries to say that he would come on his own time, but she only shakes her head. They both know that if she didn’t bring him, he would only get lost on the way — if he bothered to come at all.

So Oleana leads him down, out of the tower, and to Rose’s mansion on the outskirts of Wyndon.

There’s a boy standing outside the iron gate. Leon recognizes him, possibly: that sandy-blonde hair is distinctive. So is that uniform: the fairy-type dress, with the skirt tied up in a bow in the back.

“Bede,” Oleana says. “You haven’t gone in yet?”

“I haven’t decided whether I want to see him,” Bede replies.

They glare at each other. Leon feels like he’s walked into someone else’s story.

“Y’know.” He places himself between them, slightly facing Oleana. “I’m not sure I want to see him, either. Why don’t you go inside and give us some time to decide? I can’t get lost walking a straight line, right?”

Oleana still looks angry. The thing is, though: when it comes to Chairman Rose? Rose will let Leon get away with anything, and Oleana knows it.

“He will be waiting for you in the dining room.” She opens the gate and walks inside. “If young master Bede wishes to come inside, he should come with you.”

Then she leaves them alone.

Leon examines the kid.

The first time he’d heard of Bede, it was Rose passing him a league card showing the child he would be endorsing this year. There was always a new challenger every year, and Rose always said that this one would take the Champion title, but none of them ever did.

(“Nine-oh-eight,” Leon said. “Do you know if it means anything?”

“It’s still goroawase, but it references a Galarian word. Ku-re-ba. Clever.”

“Why is it clever?”

“...Leon, do you really not get it?”)

Then there had been the time Hop was so upset that he actually ran away rather than talk to him. That had worried Leon so much -- there were some things even he couldn’t protect Hop from, and he’d worried that something terrible had happened.

He asked Gloria about it, and she mentioned Bede.

It was the first time Leon had thought of the kid as a person himself and not just an extension of Rose. Did that count as a bad first impression?

And then Sonia mentioned he’d destroyed that mural somewhere...

“Hey,” Leon says, now. “Are you here because you want to be? Because if you don’t want to see him, I can tell him to leave you alone. He listens to me.”

Bede’s expression remains unreadable. “Yes. He likes you.”

He likes you.

Rose likes Leon the way a father loves his child. Does everything to make him happy, teaches him _responsibility_ and _discipline_ , naturally prefers him above all others.

Yes, if Rose treats his endorsees like his children, Leon is unquestionably his favorite.

He gets the feeling that saying that will only hurt Bede’s feelings, though, and he’s not here to bully a child. 

What Leon says is: “Yeah, well, my image has made him a lot of money.”

(It might still be making him money, actually. Leon should really ask someone to check on that.)

Bede snorts.

They fall into silence.

Leon leans against the fence posts, waiting. For what, he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t have a grudge against Bede. He did, for a little, while Hop was still upset about their argument, but Hop got over it, so Leon did too. He rationalized it: kids don’t know any better. For someone from Bede’s background, a certain amount of aggression is to be expected.

Seeing Bede at the champion cup, bright-eyed and covered in pink, Leon had wondered what happened to the kid the chairman had endorsed. He looked so different, like a brand new person. 

But Bede wasn’t a new person. Just a kid who’d gotten a second chance to grow.

“Have you been to the Circhester Gym?”

Bede stiffens. “You know I haven’t. I was disqualified, remember?”

“Hm. That’s true. Though I’m surprised Opal hasn’t taken you. Anyway.” Leon stretches his legs out and lets himself slide down the bars, coming closer to Bede’s height. “The gym mission there is a maze. You gotta pass through without falling into the traps, right? But the traps are all invisible.”

“So you get through by trial-and-error, and everyone watches every time you fall? That seems… cruel.”

“It would be. But the gym gives you this device that locates the traps. You can’t trust your eyes, but you can trust the gym’s guidance.”

Bede puts a hand to his mouth. “I suppose I can see the sportsmanship in that. Though I don’t understand why you’re bothering to tell me about it. I’m never going to challenge that gym myself.”

“It’s symbolism.” If you say something is symbolism, does that make it _not_ symbolism? Whatever; Hop and Sonia can think about that later. “You guys -- you and Hop and Gloria and the rest of the season’s new trainers -- you’re really strong, you know? But that doesn’t mean that you can’t accept help. I know I’m not your brother, but… Look, Rose found me the same way he found you. If you want, I could… I could help you, too.”

Bede is silent.

Leon pulls out one of his league cards and a permanent marker (he may not be champion anymore, but old habits die hard), then scribbles his personal number on the back. “Here.”

The kid takes the card with his left hand, holding it carefully. His Rotom-phone appears and takes a photo, probably adding the number to the contacts list. Then Bede tucks the card into one of his sleeves.

“I don’t think I want to see him today,” Bede says.

“Oh. That’s — that’s fine. Can you find your way back from here? Do you want me to walk with you?”

The kid laughs softly. “We both know that you’ll just get us lost. No, you can go see the chairman, if you want.”

They part ways.


	2. Rose.

Rose’s mansion is just as elegant as his tower. It has energy-efficient lightbulbs and modern-style furniture, everything so delicate as to be very expensive.

_This is the palace of a modern king, huh?_

_A modern king in exile._

In the living room, Rose is waiting. He’s wearing his chairman suit and even has the gold pin in his tie, but now, it looks like somebody else’s costume.

Oleana stands behind him, loyal to the last.

When Leon enters, alone, Rose’s face falls. “Bede couldn’t make it?”

“He wasn’t ready.”

 _When you use someone as a tool,_ Leon thinks, _don’t be surprised if they decide to not come running when you call._

But then, Leon himself always came when Rose called, didn’t he?

Rose sighs. “It’s unfortunate, but I understand. I was so obsessed with protecting his future that I neglected him in the present. If only I had told him more about what I was doing…”

If he had told more…

If Rose told Bede beforehand, would the kid still destroy the mural?

( _If Leon had just texted Hop, “hey, I’m gonna be late for dinner,” would the kids still storm the tower?_ )

But Rose told Leon everything, and look where that went.

Ever since Leon was ten years old, he’s been looking up to Rose as a grownup who has things under control. No matter what happened, everything would be okay, because the Chairman took care of everything so long as Leon _did not lose._

“My brother almost died,” he blurts out. _**I** almost died._

Rose turns away.

“For what it’s worth… I’m sorry about that. I tried to keep them away from the fight. They overpowered me, eventually, and by the time they did, I assumed you had already captured Eternatus. I am deeply sorry.”

Of course he assumed his champion would have everything under control.

_You forced my hand, Leon._

Does a sword direct the hand who wields it?

He doesn’t want to give Rose the satisfaction of absolution. Not yet. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. It was Gloria that caught the thing, though. And now she’s the champion, too. I’m sorry, Chairman. I must be utterly useless to you now.”

Useless. Useful.

As a kid, Leon did everything Rose asked without a second thought. Fight here, smile there, pose for the cameras. It was what a champion did, after all.

As he grew, Leon had a harder time being so obedient. He had his own life, apart from the Chairman — apart from the league, even. One day he realized that he and Rose were no longer endorsee and sponsor, but equals.

On some level, at least.

But he still kept feeling the obligation to be useful.

Rose shakes his head. “You have value beyond simply being useful. You were my champion before you were Galar’s. You’ll always have a special place in my heart.”

A special place.

The sword that can cut through anything.

The strongest champion Galar has ever seen.

The one Rose calls for help.

( _Eternatus strikes, and Leon’s only ally is Charizard. Rose didn’t send anyone to help him. Nobody comes at all, but —_

_”LEE!”_

_The monster before him, the children behind him — who decided that a ten-year-old could be the hero of a region? Who thought this was a good idea?_

_The Pokeball shakes —_

_Charizard rushes to protect the kids —_

_Oh, gods, what has he done?_ )

“Leon? Are you alright?”

Leon comes back to his senses and realizes that he’s shaking.

He blinks at Rose, and it’s like seeing him for the first time. 

Maybe part of growing up was realizing that grownups could make mistakes. That grownups could be untrustworthy. That grownups could be _wrong_.

That even a champion could lose.

He has to get out of here.

“Thank you for the meeting,” he says, the simple politeness easy after years of training. “But I really have to go now.”

“Really, Le—“

“Really.”

Rose’s eyebrow furrows, like he wants to keep Leon from leaving.

The Chairman has no power over him anymore, though, and Leon escapes.

The daylight is warm on his skin.

*

When Leon gets back to Wyndon, Hop and Gloria are waiting for him.

“Oleana told us where you were going,” Hop explains. “We were really worried, Lee!”

Gloria nods in agreement, one hand holding a pokeball as though she’s ready to fight.

(Maybe they would have stormed the tower no matter what.)

“I’m sorry for making you worry. But it’s alright. Let’s focus on the now, right?” Then, because old habits die hard, Leon strikes his famous pose. “We’ll have a legendary time!”

The children blink at him, then laugh and strike their own poses. They stand more confidently, now, and move more gracefully. They’re growing before his eyes.

Leon’s chest aches. He reminds himself that this is supposed to be a good thing.

He steps between them, taking them under his arms. “Come on, you two. It’s time for us to go home.”

Galar shines before them, bright and beautiful.

Leon is glad to be here to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm glad you all liked this series. It's been a lot of fun to write!


End file.
